346ss: Before even thinking about this hobby realize that you either already have patience or that you are going to use this hobby to develop patience. I chose this hobby to develop patience. I'm not telling you to sit and watch the grass grow, but this is one hobby where the turtle wins the race.
This hobby will teach you so much about life that its worth every bit of it.
Another Plus: compare a fish tank to a dog or cat. Feeding fish is easy, in the right amounts. Dogs and cats tear up garbage cans if you feed them too little, and feeding them too much makes them lazy. And what happens when you feed your pets? They go No.2 and with fish, there isn't much cleanup. You don't have to let them out or clean the litterbox.
Originally Posted by TexasMetal
This is good advice. I started this hobby for the sake of one day keeping an octopus. I gladly ditched my freshwater stuff when I discovered someone can realisticly keep an octopus. I started slowly, with a 10 gallon tank, a couple of easy-care coral frags, a goby, and some shrimp. After my confidence grew I kept more stuff, and more tanks, and finally 2 years later I had the guts to try an octo. It lived for 4 months... and as pathetic as that is, it was a dwarf (my avatar) and its lifespan would have only been 6-8 months typically anyway, so I call it a success. 4 months success? Sucks. BUT! Not any other critter I have kept was nearly as cool... except for my diurnal O. filosus. She was bigger, active during the daylight hours, and took food from my hand. You can see videos of her on Youtube if you search for "octopus tuvalu". I got her from this website. She did however die 3 weeks after I got her, and I can't explain why.... and that my friend is pretty common with these creatures.
They are about as close to alien lifeforms as we will probably ever see, and it's neat to be able to sit and stare at one for hours in your own home... instead of watching clips on the internet or rewinding documentaries over and over to see the neat things they do.
If you look around long enough you will probably find some tank bred Bimacs. This would be the way to go because you should be able to determine the age, and as long as they are only a few months old, you should have around a year, maybe more with it.
Saw your post on TONMO, so I had to see what was going on over here at the swf.com forums. Welcome to the wonderful world of ceph addiction.
I must say that you do a great job on your article on Keeping an Octopus.
With that said, I don't understand why you would make the video "Tuvalu flashing colors". This video shows that you are just throwing your hand at the tank scaring it to the point of what we ourselves would consider as convulsions. I understand you want to show people what they have the ability to do, but I don't think that it was in the best interest of the Octopus.
